At present, primarily a ceiling-mounted overhead console provides general ambient lighting for vehicle interiors. The console lighting is associated with some drawbacks. It does not provide adequate peripheral lighting. Sometimes vehicle occupants find themselves in need of more lighting and bring a written note or the interior of a bag under the overhead console to see it. It casts shadows in places that need lighting. For example, the lap of a front-row-seat occupant can be shadowed by the head and shoulders of the occupant being in the light's way. Furthermore, the leg area of the back row can be shadowed by front-row seats. Although lighting is pleasing to an occupant who needs it, it might be annoying for other occupants who do not need it at the moment. The light reflected from windows or other shiny parts may impede the outside view of the driver, or the console light may expose the inside of a vehicle to outsiders in an unsafe neighborhood.
As the console lighting does not satisfy all the needs of vehicle occupants, other extra lights are added in different locations—vanity mirror lights on sun visors, courtesy lights on door panels, reading or map lights, extra lights for footwell areas, etc. The vanity-mirror lights are located in front of the eyes, contrary to the teachings of eye-vision optics. Exposed courtesy lights can also be disturbing to the eye. Lighting fixtures under the hood of engine compartment and those in luggage compartment of vehicles have poor peripheral lighting and create human-body shadows of the user when serving the engine or searching in the trunk. The ceiling passenger-seat lighting in airplanes allows only directional adjustment that is limited. As a passenger might bend forward to look at an object more closely, the head and shoulders may shadow the area. Furthermore, the peripheral lighting of the overhead console might annoy nearby passengers that may be resting.
In spite of many extra lights added in several locations, occupants of automobiles, trucks, buses, trains, watercraft, and airplanes are still expected to avoid light shadows or the direct stray light to the eye by adjusting their bodies to lighting that is fixed in place.
Several patents or publications have addressed at least partially some of the aforementioned problems of lighting in vehicle passenger compartments:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,395 of McKenzie and Kempf discloses a retractable lighting system that uses a crank dial, a system of pulleys, and cables with light generators. The user has to use the crank dial to extend down any of a system of cables. Again, the user has to crank the dial mechanism back so that the illuminating units are returned to the retracted positions.
Publication US 2007/0008719 of Hill discloses a hand-held flash light connected by a retractable tether to a spool housing. The retractable flash light can be extended to illuminate the footwell under the driver or passenger seat (see paragraph [0164] of the publication).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,745 of Speth and Sak discloses a lighting system with a flexible hose that has to be disposed [tackled] by the user into a channel of a semi-circular cross section positioned about the periphery of a dome light in the vehicle's ceiling. Before deploying the flexible hose light, the user has to insert [pry] the finger into the channel and detach the lamp housing and the flexible hose from the retention mechanism (see end of page 3 and beginning of page 4 of the patent).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,450 of Tiesler discloses a dual function interior console lamp having a first position to provide dome or general-purpose ambient lighting and a second position to provide a positionable reading lamp.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,081,007 of Marchese discloses an electrical fixture in fixed relationship with a ceiling and an electrical outlet attached to an electrical cable so that the outlet can be moved between a retracted position adjacent to the light fixture and an extended position, as the electrical cable is dispensed from the retraction mechanism.
Publication WO 03/101779 of Smith and others shows an auxiliary light mounted on the upper edge of the driver's door, which can be retracted when not in use and extended to illuminate outwardly from the vehicle or inwardly.
With all the efforts addressing the aforementioned problems, the prior art is still missing a self-supportive lighting device that can be pulled down by the user with a natural move of one hand and which can be pulled back to the ceiling just as easily with the press of a button.